


Child of the Universe

by Anonymous



Series: Maria Stark Jr. One Shots [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Not A Fix-It, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Stark!Reader, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 03:27:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14761719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Ever since Maria Stark Jr. was just a child, the stones had claimed her as their own.





	Child of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by The Great Awakening (To Hold Infinity) by @RayShippouUchiha https://archiveofourown.org/works/14588067  
> A huge thank you to @magnaparva They were the one who commented and linked this for me, I really really appreciate you telling me!

Ever since Maria Stark was just a child, the stones had claimed her as their own.

She is six years old when the whispering had woken her. It wasn’t the type of whispering she’d hear from her father or uncle Rhodey, it was something else, something softer, something coaxing her to come to it. She followed the whispers all the way to the lab of the building she was in. It was a giant building, a place she was put for safety while he father was gone, and there were hundreds of things stored here. She entered the empty lab, her bare feet lightly padding across the cold ground as she continued to follow the hum. And there it sat in front of her, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her short life. Her eyes widened and she stepped closer, reaching and allowing the wispy tendrils to brush against her fingers.

The tesseract hummed softly and glowed brighter as the young girl giggled softly. _Oh child_ , it hummed, _beautiful child of the stars_. Marias smile brightened and she once more caressed the cube.

Suddenly, stars, thousands of stars formed around her. She looked around, spinning in a slow circle as her big brown eyes scanned the galaxy around her. The Space stone would give her the world if she so asked, the image of stars being the simplest of things it had to offer.

After a few short hours of Maria whispering to the cube and the cube humming back, she was sent back upstairs. She was afraid of getting lost, but the cube would not let her, it guided her back up to her room just as it’d guided her down.

The nights passed like that, Maria sneaking down to the lab and softly whispering to the cube as the cube showed her wonders beyond the little girls wildest imagination. The blue glow comforted her, made her feel warm and safe each night until Maria returned to bed and the cube lulled her to sleep. Tony questioned why his daughter was so exhausted all the time, but she promised it was just restlessness from a new place, she refused to give up her friend.

She is seven when her friend is taken away. She cries and barely slept the first night it was gone. Her heart ached for the soothing blue light, that calming hum, the gentle whisper of _mine, mine, mine_ over and over again when it showed her the stars.

She is eleven when her mother dies, not that the woman was involved much in her daughter's life, but the loss still stung. She hugged her father and cried quietly as he smoothed her brown hair down and whispered nonsense that somehow comforted her.

She is thirteen when her father goes missing. She sobs the first night harder than she had in years, one of her father's suit jackets clutched tightly in her arms as she uselessly begged the universe to spare him. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she could have sworn she heard the soft whispers _hush child, he will live, I can promise he will return._

She is thirteen when her father returns home with a blue glow in his chest. It wasn’t the same glow that she’d loved as a child, but she still rested her head on a it and thanked the universe that it was keeping her father alive. The night he returned home, she had hugged him tightly and softly whispered a tear filled ‘thank you’. Tony didn’t understand, he’d questioned it, but she never explained. In the back of her mind, she could have sworn she heard the softest _I will always keep my promises child, always._

She is fourteen when her and her father watched the news reporting on the strange man in New Mexico. Her father had been Iron Man for over a year now and many things had changed, but he was still her father and he was alive. The hum had almost fully disappeared from her mind, but sometimes, if she was very quiet and focused, she could swear she could hear it. _Mine, mine, mine, I will keep you safe, my child you are precious._

She is fifteen when she hears another hum, it sounds similar but different, but it still calls out for her. She is standing face to face with a man who looks as though he’s been through hell and back, his eyes sunken and cheeks hollow. She stands tall and brave when he pressed the scepter to her chest. She watches as his eyebrows furrow when nothing happens. He doesn’t understand, but she can hear it. _No, no I refuse. I will not hurt her. You are safe my child, I will not harm you._ She smiled and almost reaches out for out, her hands itching to just hold it in her hands, have it close to her. She does not though, she is soon swept away by her father after the Hulk buries the broken man into the stone of the floor. She stares up into the building as her father flies her to safety, she can hear it call out _mine, mine, I will find you again._

She is sixteen when Pepper is harmed and her entire home falls. She watches the news reports from the safe place Tony sent her to at the first sign of trouble. She sobs and stares at the TV, begging the universe once again to return both her father and Pepper safely. She hears it, louder this time. _They will be safe, we promise we will keep them safe._

She is seventeen and she is not dumb. She knows Steve is lying, she has known for much longer than she’d like to admit. She goes with her father to visit Steve in the hospital. They laugh and joke about his injuries and she knows, she knows deep down that this may be the last time things are okay.

She is still seventeen when another voice is added to the whispers and hums, another whisper that promises to protect her no matter what. _We will find you, you are our child and we will keep you safe._ When she dreams she can see the purple, yellow, and blue lights flashing and glowing in her vision. She smiles and giggles like shes a child again, and she promises she will find them and when she has them all she will never let them go.

She is eighteen when the hum is loud, so loud that she rises from her room and goes in search of it. She almost weeps when she sees it, the scepter that refused to harm her, the calming yellow, it is in front of her. She goes forward and rests a hand over the stone and she can feel the relief and joy radiating off of it. She almost weeps again when she is escorted away and things go to hell. Her father was just trying to help, trying to fix what he believed he had broken, but mistakes happen and things go wrong. She is hidden away again and her father leaves to go save the world again as she sits. She does not need to beg, the voices and humming start before the first tears even fall. _He will live child, he will survive this, you will survive. We will bring you no harm._

She is eighteen when she meets Vision. He is kind and soft spoken. He is shocked when he realizes that the stone on his forehead is calling out for her. He allows her to rest her hand over it and she cries softly, smiling as she whispers to the stone. Vision keeps her secret and allows her to speak with the stone whenever she’d like.

She is eighteen when she meets her, the woman with powers that do not belong to her. She lashes out, she yells and cries and tells the woman that she is not worthy of the glow coming from her hands.

She is eighteen when she realizes life will never be the same when she sees the way the others speak to her father. She prepares herself for the pain that is going to come soon.

She is nineteen when she stares down the people she used to call family, she calls Steve ‘Rogers’ and moves away from his touch. He calls her immature, she calls him foolish.

She is nineteen when the man with the metal arm pins her to the wall. The world around her blurs and she can hear four voices screaming, begging her to fight, promising to tear the man apart. She drops to the ground and watches Natasha fight the man. Her father sends her away and she goes, she sits until something in her mind screams at her to go. She knows people, she sees the look in Steve's eyes and she knows he will do anything to protect Barnes. So she goes. She puts on the repulsor gloves her father made her a while ago just in case of the worst, and an old combat uniform of Natashas. The red and gold nitinol clinks gently as she clenches her firsts and tries to ignore the four voices screaming at her to not go. ‘It’s my dad’ she whispers to them ‘I can’t let him fight this alone’.

She is nineteen when she watches the screen showing her grandmother and grandfather die. The woman her father so desperately wanted her to know, the woman she was named after, her neck snapped by the man beside them. It's Maria who fires the first shot. Tony shoots second after Steve knocks Maria down. She watches in horror as Barnes digs his metal hand into Tony’s heart, her father's heart, the blue glow she loved as a child. She screams and tries to rush to Tony, only to get knocked off the ledge and fall. She sees Steves face as she falls, she reaches out for barely a second. Steve, the man she’d met when she was still young, the man she’d heard about in her history lessons, the man she called an uncle. He just watched her fall.

She is nineteen when she drags herself back up to her father and curls against his side, desperately trying to share body heat. His suit is dead and she didn’t dress warm enough for this. She drifts in and out of consciousness as she hears the four voices screaming and desperately begging her to live. _We will protect you, just hold on and we will get to you. Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive._ She wakes up in a hospital three days later and cries when she learns both her and her father survived. She rips up a letter and throws it away. She cries and Vision lets her rest her hand on the stone and sob. It’s late at night when she hears another voice, the quietest whisper out there somewhere, assuring her that it also loves her, she is their child and she is precious.

She is still nineteen when she really meets Peter Parker. She ruffles his hair and calls him little bro. She also hugs him and promises he’s doing a good job at being being a hero. He calls her when he has panic attacks and she takes him for drives and helps May with baking - she had a lot of free time when her dad went missing, and stress baking became a common occurrence. May trusts Tony more after seeing how kind and intelligent Maria is, Tony did a good job raising her. Maria sits and bandages Peters cuts after he fights the vulture. She answers his calls late at night and assures him he is not weak for having nightmares, he is not weak for having been afraid. She watches with slight pride when Peter politely passes up the offer to be an Avenger. She introduces him to Harley a few weeks later and Tony deeply regrets ever letting them all meet.

She is twenty when Tony asks if she would be alright with him proposing to Pepper. She laughs loudly and promises ‘dad, I’ve been wanting this since I was thirteen, please propose’. She almost cries when Pepper shows her the ring, the ring her grandmother had. Things are really good, she feels warm and safe most nights, the cold from those nights in Siberia almost forgotten on her good days. She has her own home now, a job, a puppy, a possible love interest, her life is coming together nicely. She can hear it though, those whispers and hums. _He’s coming, he’s coming and he wants to hurt you. We will not harm you, stay brave, you will be safe, you are ours and you are safe._

She is twenty-one and the fifth voice is louder, much louder than before. It's right in front of her. Stephen Strange has a confused and worried expression on his face when the Eye of Agamotto moves towards the daughter of Tony Stark. He allows it though, he takes a step forward and his eyebrows shoot up once again when Maria Stark doesn’t seem to hesitate when she reaches a hand out. Her eyes flick up to Stephens and he nods, her hand moves forward again and the green tendrils of light creep up her wrist and arm once she finally rests a hand on it. She seems to breathe a sigh of relief and her eyes water. “I’m here, you’ve found me I’m here,” she whispers, speaking softly to the stone.

“Maria?” Tony softly questions, taking a step forward and suppressing a gasp when he sees the way the stone seems to have a gentle hold on her arm. The moment is interrupted when Bruce appears. “Bruce?” Tony is clearly confused, but he hugs the man before moving out of the way and allowing Maria to hug Bruce. She chokes out a soft sob and he hugs her tighter, talking about how much she’s grown until Stephen decides they get back on track.

They’re in the sanctum and Stephen watches, confused and slightly fascinated as the stone continues to reach out for Maria, the strands of green stretching as far as they can to get to her. She shudders at the mention of Thanos and is about to answer Tony’s question about her and the stones when they are interrupted by the ship. She watches her father, her brother, and the stone go up into space and she wants to cry and scream in rage.

She allows Bruce to call Rogers and stands beside Rhodey when they arrive, her face a blank mask when they enter. Rogers goes for a hug and she ignores him, even flinching away from his touch.

“Thought you would have grown out of that by now. You’re a woman, you should respect others,” Rogers tries to scold, Maria just fixes him with a hard glare.

“Sorry, I’ve got a bit of an issue with physical contact, especially with those who push me off of a ledge thats three storeys off the ground,” she responds curtly.

An almost growl like sound fills the room and they all turn to Vision. “The stone,” he explains. “The stone seems to hate you, it’s enraged that you attempted to kill Maria.”

“Why should the stone care so much?” Wanda scoffs.

_Mine, mine, MINE_ is all the stone responds with. Maria takes a step forward, ignoring Wanda's protests and presses a hand to the stone after Vision nods. She gets barely a second to comfort it before she’s pulled away by Rogers and the stone growls again.

The flight to Wakanda feels longer than it actually is. Maria quietly reassures the stones that she will find them, she will get them to her somehow and she will never let them go. She keeps her promises.

“I know you,” the titan speaks, crouching down a bit to meet Marias gaze directly. “They never seem to stop talking about you, always whispering and screaming, can never get them to shut up.” _Mine, mine, mine._ “We’re not so different, you and I. We both have the power to control them, the power of the universe bending under out will.”

“You’re wrong,” Maria finally spoke up. The others all watch, frozen and stuck as they see the small woman stare down the mad titan like he was just another nuisance in her life.

“Oh?”

“Yes. They are mine and I am theirs, I belong to them as much as they belong to me. I do not control them.” She took a step forward and looked down at the glove. “Bring them back here.”

“What?” Thanos looked confused and he stands to his full height.

“That’s not for you,” she responds. In a second, the others seem to materialize in front of all of them. Tony, Peter Parker, Stephen, Peter Quill, Mantis, Nebula, and Drax. Maria smiles at the glove. “Thank you.”

“What? How-” Thanos starts again, looking confused as he stares down at his arm.

“Your time with them is over now, they do not belong to you. I’m ready for them to come home,” she speaks calmly and evenly.

“No! You foolish child.” He raises a hand and goes to close his fist, but nothing happens, he tries again but still nothing happens.

_No, no we will never harm her. Mine, mine, ours. She is ours and we will not harm her._ They all speak over and over again, loud enough for the others to hear. _Ours, ours._

“I will not ask again. Give. Them. To. Me.”

Thanos has enough sense to look slightly frightened, but he still does not relent. Maria takes a step forward and Stephen has to hold Tony back, he knows what’s coming, he’s seen it. She raises her hand and rests her hand on the gauntlet. “You can come home how,” she whispers softly. A huge bright light flashes and everyone is momentarily blinded. Tony struggles against Stephens grip and he screams, rushing towards where Maria was standing. When his vision returns, he sees her standing there. The gauntlet is still on Thanos’ hand, but it's melted and shriveled against his skin, and all six stones are missing. The titan stands for a moment before he fades away to ash.

“Maria!” Tony grabs his daughters shoulders and holds her close. “My god Maria, never do that again, are you okay? What just-” He cuts himself off and looks down at his daughters arm. There, on her left arm, are the stones. Time, Mind, Soul, Reality, Power, and Space, all glowing brightly and nestled into the skin of her arm. They look like they belong there, and for some reason, Tony isn’t afraid.

“They’re finally home,” she whispers softly, tears coming to eyes as she looks at her left arm and brushes her right fingertips against the stones. “You’re home.”

She is twenty-one when she brings Gamora and Loki home safe. Loki bows before her and begs for forgiveness, she grants it. Peter Quill cries and holds Gamora tighter than he ever had before, he also makes a joke about Maria and the stones. She brings life back to Vision, he is fully Vision, no longer the stone as well. Wanda cries and Maria allows the woman to hug her.

She is twenty-two when her father gets married. She is Peppers maid of honour, the light yellow dress fits nicely with the stones on her arm. She cries and thanks the stones that night for keeping her alive, protecting her and those she loved. _Of course_ they whisper _we promised, we keep our promises for what is ours._

She is twenty-three when her little brother is born, she cries and holds him and the stones hum to him in the same way they hum to Maria. Maria promises to keep him safe, promises to always love and cherish him even during his terrible twos.

She is twenty-six when she is awake one night. Her spouse is still fast asleep in their bedroom, the terrors of the years past having been almost forgotten. She holds her daughter in her arms, the young girls big brown eyes looking around her room in wonder as stars flood in. The space stone hums softly to the baby, the same thing it used to hum when it lulled Maria to sleep when she was just a child. The baby's eyes flutter closed and the stones all hum lovingly.

_Oh child, precious children. You are children on the stars. We will protect you, for you are ours and we are yours._

**Author's Note:**

> So if you noticed, I purposefully left Maria's love interest vague. I wanted to leave who she ended up with up to you guys. I do have a few different people I thought of her ending up with, and I'd totally be willing to explore that if anybody is interested. Also I did my best at making the timeline correct and making the way the stones each found her understandable, but if I did make any mistakes please feel free to tell me and I will try to fix it. I do have a bunch of other ideas for Maria, so if anybody would like to see more stories about mini Stark, please tell me.  
> Also! This was inspired by a fic focusing on Tony Stark that had a very similar plot but went in a different direction than mine did. If anybody has any idea what it is, please please tell me, I'd really like to link it here so people can read it. Thank you so much! (The fic has been found, thank you!)


End file.
